Accession Number

1986.008.0023

Alternate object names

Carved Ivory Cover

Description

A rectangular section of an intricately carved ivory panel appears to have once been a side of a box or casket (a box-like container that held precious or religious items). Small, green-stained holes along three of the edges indicate the piece was attached with copper or copper-alloy fasteners. The exterior face is bordered by a band of geometric patterns containing elaborate, scrolling vine-work that loops at regular intervals to contain a variety of animals and birds fashioned in an Asian style. A central, rectangular border is decorated with repeating florets, and it surrounds two creatures on either side of a heart pierced by two arrows, likely a representation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The interior of the panel is undecorated and smooth. There has been some splitting of the ivory because of the piece’s long marine submersion.

An Iberian tradition of ivory work dates to the ninth century, where Hispano-Moresque artisans created caskets and round pyxis, though that tradition ended in the fourteenth century, as ivory supplies dwindled. Similar ivory work was also created at much the same time in Moorish Italy. Ivory caskets were made in other parts of Europe, too, though they tended to be decorated with human figures. In the sixteenth century, as the Portuguese began to colonize areas of Africa and the Indian Ocean basin, Native Sri Lankan artisans responded to the incursion and tailored their wares, in large part caskets, for European markets. Some known colonial Sri Lankan caskets show design elements comparable to the Margarita pieces: similar florets filling banded borders, as well as scrolling vine-work that encircling a menagerie of animals. And in this colonial context, the pierced heart element implies a South Asian adaptation to the Christian market. Considering the decorative similarities and the 1622 date, the Santa Margarita ivory panels are likely to have originated with a casket made in colonial Sri Lanka. It entered the Spanish system either from the east, through Portuguese connections, or it traveled westward to Spanish Manila and then carried across the Pacific Ocean to Mexico on a Manila galleon. On Santa Margarita, its Spanish owner likely used the casket, beautiful and valuable in and of itself, to carry prized personal possessions.

See also 1986.008.0045, which looks to be another panel from the same casket.

Exhibition Label

Case Caption (2023): N/A
Object Caption (2023):
Box Panels
Ivory (Spain, probably Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba, c.1000)
Gift of Jamestown Inc.
1986.008.0023, 1986.008.0045

In Muslim Spain, ivory was rare and ivory boxes were used by royalty to hold precious items. When Spanish Christians looted Muslim strongholds, these boxes were often donated to churches where they were used to house sacred relics. These matched panels were found on the wreck of the Santa Margarita, where the box might have been in the custody of the powerful Jesuit, Father Jusepe de Arriaga.
Previous Object Caption: Removed 2022. Ivory Box Lid Recovered from the Santa Margarita, this rare artifact shows Spain’s Moorish heritage in the design. Boxes like these were made during the 10th and 11th centuries in the Caliphate of Cordoba and this example was probably a family heirloom.